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Friday, March 1, 2019 Livestock market owner struck by bull dies Caution urged for Oregon intermodal funding plans Joe Parypa, noted auc- tioneer and co-owner of the Chehalis Livestock Market in southwest Washington, died Feb. 21 at a Tacoma hospital, 12 days after he was struck by a bull. He was 63. “Joe was as honest as the day was long,” said Brenda Balmelli, whose husband, Dave, bought the Cheha- lis market with Parypa in 1986. “I’m a better per- son for getting to work with him for 20 years, and David is, too, for sharing an offi ce with him for 35 years.” Parypa died at St. Joseph Medical Center. He also had Parkinson’s disease and was unable to recover from the internal injuries he suffered, Balmelli said. Parypa was World Reserve Grand Champion Auctioneer in 1987. “He felt his best on the auction- eer’s block,” Balmelli said. Livestock hauler Steve McCombs of Satsop said he met Parypa more than 40 years ago. “He was a young whip- persnapper auctioneer, and I was a young whipper- snapper livestock hauler,” he said. “He was a good man.” McCombs said Parypa was honest about the qual- ity of cattle brought to his market, even if the owner didn’t want to hear it. “He didn’t make everybody happy, but he wasn’t in that business,” McCombs said. “You may 30 Brooks Ore. 26 ive Stayton 226 Millersburg ur r Vale Payette Ontario 52 201 R 20 M al Nyssa Lebanon e 34 Corvallis 5 99W 20 99E 228 Area in detail Ore. Lake Owyhee 20 26 R. Idaho Ore. N 22 5 Albany 34 95 Weiser Salem 99W 223 o Ore. 84 Idah Area in detail Sn a k Oregon transportation offi cials are being urged to proceed cautiously with funding for intermodal facil- ities in the Willamette and Treasure valleys due to eco- nomic obstacles facing both projects. Two years ago, Ore- gon lawmakers authorized spending $51 million for the two facilities, where con- tainers of farm goods would be loaded from trucks onto railcars to ease highway congestion. The proposed intermodal facility in Nyssa, Ore., is intended to allow farmers to save on transportation costs by shipping onions from the Treasure Valley by rail rather than trucking them to a more distant intermodal yard in Eastern Washington. Competing sites in Mill- ersburg and Brooks in the Willamette Valley both aim to give agricultural exporters a new way to get their prod- ucts to marine ports along Washington’s Puget Sound by rail while avoiding traffi c in Portland, Ore. The Oregon Transporta- By DON JENKINS Capital Press Planned intermodal facilities debated he By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press tion Commission is expected to decide whether to fund the $26 million Treasure Valley facility and whether to award $25 million to either the site in Millersburg or Brooks on March 21. However, experts warned the commission during a Feb. 21 meeting that all three proposals would have to overcome serious hurdles to become self-sustaining oper- ations in the long term. Business Oregon, the state’s economic develop- ment agency, refrained from recommending the inter- modal facilities for fund- ing until the proponents address a “common set of identifi ed defi ciencies,” said Chris Harder, the agency’s director. “Our determination is fur- ther information is necessary for the department to make a recommendation to move forward any of the three proj- ects,” Harder said. Specifi cally, Harder said the “defi ciencies” include “overly optimistic” projec- tions of container volume moving through the facili- ties and insuffi cient commit- ments from railroads regard- ing available service and rates. Matthew Garrett, director of the Oregon Department of Transportation, said he rec- ommends the commission advance the Treasure Val- ley and Millersburg projects in an “incremental manner” with “off-ramps” for cut- ting off public funds if appli- River lame t t e Wil ‘Defi ciencies’ found in three proposals before Oregon Transportation Commission 3 CapitalPress.com 95 Capital Press graphic cants can’t meet the neces- sary goals. The onus is on project applicants to resolve these concerns, Garrett said. “It’s not a punt or a pivot. It’s a direct engagement from the project sponsors that there are unanswered questions and they should be the ones to answer those questions.” An analysis by the Tioga transportation consulting fi rm found that volumes at the Treasure Valley facility are likely to be lower than proponents expect and the site will have less reliable rail service than the intermodal yard in Eastern Washington. As for the rival Willa- mette Valley proposals, Tioga determined that nei- ther is far enough from marine ports to economically spread the costs of building and operating an intermodal terminal. “We don’t think either proposal can succeed on a standalone basis,” said Dan Smith, Tioga’s principal. “There’s nothing either team can do to change the funda- mental economics.” Even so, Tioga recom- mends funding the site in Millersburg over Brooks because its proponents have secured the cooperation of Northwest Container Ser- vices, an intermodal opera- tor in Portland that already works with Puget Sound marine ports and is effec- tively subsidized by ocean carriers. Smith said the Millers- burg site must still conquer formidable problems but is “a few yards ahead in a long race.” “This doesn’t make any of this easy,” he said. “It does give Millersburg a slight head start, we think.” Joe Parypa died Feb. 21, almost two weeks after being struck by a bull. not like it, but he’d tell you the truth.” Rochester dairy farmer Hank Doelman said Parypa drew out fair bids for cattle. “He’d say, ‘Don’t quit now! We’re just getting started!’” Doelman said. “He knew when to push and when to fold. ... Even if the prices were low, it was a competitive bid. “His voice, his rhythm, you got used to it. It was part of the attraction to go to listen to him sell,” Doel- man said. “Everything was legitimate, all honest.” Parypa graduated from Centralia High School. He is survived by his wife, Ellen; son, Aaron; daugh- ter, Katie Parypa-Neva; and granddaughter, Sophie Neva. There will be a pub- lic service 1 p.m. Sunday, March 17, at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound. Oregon lawmakers reconsider commission for fast-growing hemp crop With hemp production zooming toward the top of the list of commodities grown in Oregon, lawmak- ers are again considering setting up a commission to raise money for research and promotions. Aside from establishing the Oregon Industrial Hemp Commission, which would be sustained by charging assessments to growers, House Bill 2740 would also align the state and federal defi nitions of the crop. An earlier proposal to create a commodity com- mission for hemp was unan- tion of hemp through the 2018 Farm Bill, said Court- ney Moran, an attorney and president of the Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association. A planned amendment to HB 2740 would also autho- rize hemp to be tested under food safety protocols that are less expensive than those for marijuana, the psycho- active form of cannabis, Moran said. Tests would still have to confi rm hemp contains less than 0.3 percent THC, but it wouldn’t be subject to as many different tests as mar- ijuana, which would reduce the cost, she said. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, and Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Coos Bay, who testifi ed in favor of the pro- posal at a Feb. 19 legislative hearing. “We think it’s going to further boost the hemp econ- omy and put Oregon on the map for doing some very good things,” Wilson said. During the hearing, the House Committee on Agri- culture and Land Use also heard from Oregon onion growers on House Bill 2451, which would eliminate man- datory state inspections of the crop. Several onion farm- ers testifi ed that ongoing in-house onion inspections, as well as a federal onion marketing order, have made mandatory inspections by the Oregon Department of Agriculture outdated and redundant. “The law is archaic and really has nothing to do with business today,” said Kay Grass Expertise. LET’S TALK! Over 40 Years Experience CONTRACT GROWERS Foster Farms offers Broiler Farm Partnerships for New Independent Contract Growers GRAZING CORN CAN PRODUCE located between Brownsville, OR & Chehalis, WA near the I-5 corridor 3.5 LBS. GAIN/DAY. GRAZE AT PRE-TASSEL. 1500 YEARLINGS PER PIVOT FOR 30 DAYS. Contact Foster Farms, LLC 360-575-4985 GREENWAY SEEDS Caldwell, Idaho • Alan Greenway, Seedsman Cell: 298-259-9159 • MSG: 298-454-8342 Riley, general manager of the Snake River Produce Co. in Nyssa, Ore. Nobody testifi ed against the bill, which would reverse a shipping point inspection requirement enacted in 1955 with the support of onion growers. 9-3/110 By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press imously approved by the House Agriculture Commit- tee in 2017 but ultimately died for unclear reasons in the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. Hemp is poised to become the state’s top agricultural commodity with more than $1 billion in revenues in 2019, up from roughly $500 million last year, said Jay Noller, head of Oregon State University’s Crop and Soil Science Department. With that burgeoning growth, the industry will need to fi nd ways to offset problems that lie ahead, as well as fund and direct OSU research for the crop, Noller said. “We see some issues coming up.” The legislation would harmonize Oregon’s statu- tory language for hemp with the federal government’s, which has recently changed with the national legaliza- Alan Greenway, Seedsman 9-3/108 Proposal previously fl oated in 2017 legislative session 9-2/106
